A five-day peace summit in Afghanistan has ended on Friday with a call for an urgent and permanent ceasefire in the region and scheduled proposed withdrawal of foreign troops from the war-torn country.
The Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, set out its recommendations and urged the government and the Taliban to “announce an immediate and permanent ceasefire with the arrival of Ramadan”, reports Efe news.
Asking the Taliban to shun violence, the council called on the warring groups to begin “intra-Afghan talks”.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the meeting on Monday. Thousands of Afghanis summoned in the capital, Kabul, to address a rare consultative assembly, aimed at paving ways to negotiate an agreement with the Taliban to put an end to the 17-year-long crisis in the region.
The grand assembly is aimed at constructing agreement among tribal factions and several ethnic groups, and is also traditionally convened under some extraordinary circumstances.
This week’s Loya Jirga was attended by some 3,200 trail elders, including religious and community leaders from all the 34 provinces, aiming to set out Afghan’s conditions for a peace deal.
At the end of the five-day consultations, the participants issued a 23-article resolution to Ghani and called on the government, the Taliban, the international community and regional countries to “respect the recommendations of the peace jirga”.
They said the constitution and the current political structure of the government should be “maintained and protected” and, if necessary, amendments be brought in only through legal ways.
The resolution asked the government “to pave the way to bring the Taliban political office from Qatar to Afghanistan”.
Among the key demands, was a timetable to be drawn up in consultation with all related sides for what the participants said was a “responsible withdrawal” of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
Taliban leaders have so far refused to negotiate with the government, calling it a puppet of the US. The militant group has been insisting on the withdrawal of foreign forces before talks with the government in Kabul could begin.
The jirga, one of the several such events held over the past 18 years to make rational decisions, comes as Taliban
The Taliban and the United States officials kicked off their renewed round of Afghan peace talks on Wednesday, aimed at putting an end to the 17-year-long Afghan war and crisis, while the Afghan government and people summoned in a rare assembly, Loya Jirga, in the capital Kabul to ensure its interest in any peace deal.
Taliban and US leaders from the United States, led by envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, have held several rounds of peace talks in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates amid opposition from Ghani’s government, which insists on having a central role in the process.
Ghani also invited the Taliban to attend the Loya Jirga, but however, they denied the request and urged its people to boycott it, further denouncing it as an effort by US-backed government to deceive Afghan and extend so-called “illegitimate rule”.
Ghani, in his closing remarks, said: “I heard your resolution. This would be the roadmap and action programme of the government in peace talks.”
Ghani stated on the recommendation of the jirga and in respect of the month of Ramadan, the government would release 175 Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails “where they were imprisoned for years”.
“I call on Taliban to send your representatives to an Afghan city so we hand the prisoners over to you,” he added.
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